RIAA drops suit against grieving family

Even the RIAA can only take so much bad press, as the music industry trade …

The RIAA is famous for suing anyone, anywhere, no matter how unlikely the target or how bad it makes them look. Apparently, even its avarice has limits, as the group has decided to drop the suit against Larry Scantlebury's estate. Scantlebury was named as a defendant in one of the RIAA's lawsuits. He recently passed away, and the RIAA graciously decided to stay the case for 60 days while his family grieved his loss.

In response to the uproar surrounding the situation, the RIAA has decided to drop all proceedings against the estate. In a statement, RIAA spokesperson Jonathan Lamy said that "out of an abundance of sensitivity, we have elected to drop this particular case."

Curious timing. It wasn't until the story blazed a trail through the news media and across the Internet that the RIAA discovered this unexpected "abundance of sensitivity." As Cory Doctorow points out, it looks like the RIAA's sensitivity is directed primarily at its own image, rather than a grieving family.

We contacted the RIAA for comment on the story, but received no reply. That's also typical of the group: it remains silent when questions arise about its conduct, but is all too quick to respond when there is an opportunity to advance its agenda. While nearly every company and trade group will aggressively push its agenda when given the platform or opportunity, most are also capable of saying "we goofed" and "we regret our error."

Apparently being the RIAA means you never have to say you're sorry, let alone admit you were wrong in the first place. Despite the massive amounts of negative press it is garnering them, the RIAA does not appear to be shying away from its strategy of litigation and legislation. In fact, it appears dead-set on plowing full-speed-ahead with its agenda even when it is fresh out of ideas, no matter what other interests stand in its way.

Update: a few hours after this story was posted, we received the following statement from Jonathan Lamy of the RIAA: "In this case, we were speaking directly with Mr. Scantlebury—and not through a lawyer—before he passed away. After learning of his death, our first inclination, out of respect to the family, was to communicate to the court that we wished to put the case on hold. Ultimately, we decided to dismiss the case."